Sep 20 – 25, 2026
Prestige Lakeside Resort Nelson
America/Vancouver timezone
Registration and Abstract submission is OPEN

Shedding Light on the Cesium Sputter Ion Source

Sep 21, 2026, 9:00 AM
25m
Conference Room (Prestige Lakeside Resort Nelson)

Conference Room

Prestige Lakeside Resort Nelson

Speaker

Martin Martschini (University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Physics, VERA Laboratory, Vienna, Austria)

Description

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) aims at highly efficient and fast detection of minute amounts of radioisotopes and thus crucially depends among others on the attainable negative ion output from a cesium sputter ion source. However, part of the physics behind these work horses remains elusive, prohibiting accurate simulations or even sound predictions of ion source behavior. Generations of scientist have thus experimented with variations of sputter matrix composition, ion source settings and other ion sourcery magic to achieve the best performance of their AMS ion sources.
At the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), possible ion output enhancement by pulsed operation of a NEC-MC-SNICS ion source and by shining laser light into the sputter region has been investigated. Furthermore, spectroscopic analysis of the blue plasma glow visible in front of most sputter targets under favorable ion source output was also performed. Finally, the Ion-Laser InterAction Mass Spectrometry (ILIAMS) setup has been installed, which is capable of selectively removing isobaric contaminants from a negative ion beam via laser photodetachment inside a radiofrequency quadrupole ion guide.

Email address martin.martschini@univie.ac.at
Classification/Track Invited oral contribution
Visitor's Visa no
Classification Other negative ion sources for fusion, accelerators, and other applications

Authors

Martin Martschini (University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Physics, VERA Laboratory, Vienna, Austria) Prof. Robin Golser (University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Physics, VERA Laboratory, Vienna, Austria) Dr Peter Steier (University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Physics, VERA Laboratory, Vienna, Austria) Dr Karin Hain (University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics – Isotope Physics, VERA Laboratory, Vienna, Austria)

Presentation materials

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